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2nd backpack.tf Unusual Pricing Event - Details, Timeline, and Rules!


Teeny Tiny Cat

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Hello and welcome to the second backpack.tf unusual pricing event!

 

So this event is going to work slightly differently than the last one. Instead of getting new team assignments everyday, we will assign each team unusual effects at the beginning of the event and then we will have daily goals which teams can work towards within their effects. Last event we had one division for pre-made suggester teams, and one for random sign ups. This time we are going to mix the experience level of members of each team so that everyone has some veteran suggesters and some new suggesters, and every team will be competing in one division.

 

It is important that you join the discord server so that you can be allocated to your team and communicate with them about your suggestions: https://discordapp.com/invite/j7cMkGF 

 

Timeline

 

Effects will be released to teams at 1PM GMT on Saturday 1st July. Each team will then focus their suggestions for the effects of the following hats:

 

  • Saturday 1st - Soldier hats!
  • Sunday 2nd - Scout and Heavy hats!
  • Monday 3rd - Demo and Engie hats!
  • Tuesday 4th - Pyro and Medic hats!
  • Wednesday 5th - Spy and Sniper hats!
  • Thursday 6th - All class and multi class hats!
  • Friday 7th - Anything you want to finish off, time for resuggests, etc and SURPRISE free-for-all (revealed on friday)
  • Saturday 8th - mod time to complete handling of suggestions.
  • The cutoff for making suggestions is 1PM GMT Saturday 8th July
  • We will aim to review all suggestions by 1PM GMT on Sunday 9th July, but that may be extended if necessary. Update: we will likely finish up and reveal the winners on Monday 10th July.

 

Point Scoring

 

  • 1 point for every accepted suggestion 
  • 2 points if the hat is more than 1 year outdated
  • 3 points if the hat is more than 2 years outdated
  • 5 points if the hat is more than 3 years outdated
  • 1 point for every full-suggestion mini accepted, regardless of how outdated the hat is
  • -2 points for every suggestion closed by moderators
  • 0 points for BO drop suggestions - you can make them but you will not receive points for them

 

Rules

 

  • Each team needs to choose one person to suggest, and only the designated suggester for each team can post event suggestions
  • Every suggestion made must be identified as an event suggestion or mini in the first line to make it easier for mods to count them up at the end
  • No B/O only drops (you can make them, you won't get points for them)
  • For all-class hats, start with only sales from the last month. If there's one or less in the last month, then go to sales in the last 2 months. For hats outdated by more than 1 year (and only for these hats), you may select sales up to 3 months old.
  • You can make suggestions outside of your assigned effects if you need them for minis ONLY IF there is no suggestion up for it from the team who owns that effect
  • Work together as a team. We have a lot of new suggesters joining us for this event. Any teams found to be excluding them may be disqualified.

 

Prizes

 

  • 1st place - $300 marketplace.tf credit shared between your team and 1st place event badge on your profile
  • 2nd place - $200 marketplace.tf credit shared between your team and 2nd place event badge on your profile
  • Mod's choice - $100 marketplace.tf credit shared between your team and mod's choice event badge on your profile for the team mods feel worked the best together overall
  • Event MVP - $50 marketplace.tf credit and MVP event badge on your profile for the individual mods feel contributed the most overall 

 

In addition, all individuals participating will receive 1 month of free premium and a special badge on your profile on the main site. Users we determine have not contributed to their teams at all may be excluded, so it's important to conduct your discussions on our discord so mods can see who is doing what.

 

Teams

 

Team 1 - Dem Bois

Blaze.xTH3RM4Lx - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/1183-xth3rm4lx/

Apo - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/18315-apo

Shawn - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/30520-shawn/

 

Designated suggester: Blaze.xTH3RM4Lx

 

Team 2

ShuffleSpy - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/19072-ᴾᴾᴹ-shuffle-spy-7309

Wokath - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/13409-wokath

AD/HD - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/16435-ad⚡hd

flyu - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/31281-flyu2015/

bearbro - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/28549-bearbro-tradetf

 

Designated suggester: Wokath/Shuffle

 

Team 3

Gent - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/9510-gent♥

Master Throne Crimson - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/29760-🔥master-throne-crimson🔥

Han Yang - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/29152-fb-han-yang

Speedumm - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/29922-speedumm

 

Designated suggester: Master Throne Crimson

 

Team 4

Jarool - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/17867-jarool

Loaded brandy/mr_le_terminator - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/19570-mr_le_terminator

Smokey - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/26463-«-sɱokey-»/

Abhijeet - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/27710-abhijeet

Mia - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/28281-mia°

 

Designated suggester: Smokey

 

Team 5

The Mighty Bob - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/12656-the-mighty-bob

The Procave - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/10201-theprocave

Doomranger - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/30838-✪-đooмŗдпgєг-✪

AJ - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/30326-aj-͡°-͜ʖ-͡°

Loaferman - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/22917-loaferman

 

Designated suggester: The Procave ->The Mighty Bob (switched)

 

Team 6 - Geelicious

Alberny - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/17461-alberny

bipper/jasonfunderberker - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/9984-jasonfunderberker

iTrade - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/28609-itrade-™/

JustCallMeSenpai/pancake - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/31368-❤justcallmesenpai❤/

Shady - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/29209-shady-tradetf

 

Designated suggester: bipper

 

Team 7 

Xergoyf - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/27690-xergoyf

Barack Obama - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/30567-barack-obama

MeFigaYoma - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/31360-mefigayoma/

Sunjar - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/27653-sunjarz

poi - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/31278-poi

 

Designated suggester: Xergoyf

 

Team 8 - TF2HECK

Happysedits - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/17025-happysedits

Rafio - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/5658-rafiozol

Magicarp/eagle_warrior - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/28517-eagle_warrior

Vittoo - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/28957-vittoo

manic - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/31323-manic

 

Designated suggester: Happysedits

 

Team 9 "HarryG And His Amazing Friends (1981)"

SpotlightR - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/23707-spotlightr

HarryG - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/14017-harryg

Konie - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/17528-l☆r-konata☆izumi

naic/Snake - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/26162-snake1326/

 

Designated suggester: SpotlightR

 

Team 10

Erik - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/4734-erik

Lemons - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/26905-eazy-peazy-squeezy-lemons

firespy - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/31328-firespy

seagulls - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/30279-seagull-tradetf/

Gabbo - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/14326-gabbo/

 

Designated suggester: Erik

 

Team 11

Moose - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/10597-moose

Lila - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/25987-lila-mond

Botman - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/30748-bank-bot-bob-tradetf/

Soju/gabe - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/11854-gabe

 

Designated suggester: Lila/Moose

 

Team 12

Beaser - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/26892-beaser

Sin - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/28480-ѕιи

42 - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/23301-42istooshort/

ApolloTheLion - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/9127-apollothelion

lmk - https://forums.backpack.tf/index.php?/profile/3777-lmk445

 

Designated suggester: 42

 

Teams may be shuffled before the event if people drop out or don't join the discord.

 

Useful threads for new suggesters:

 

Guide for unusual price suggestions: 

 

How to use the compare function:

 

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Adding the effects list here too. Good luck and have fun everybody!

 

Team 1
Terror Watt
Stormy Storm
Circling TF Logo
Overclocked
Stormy 13th Hour
Magnetic Hat Protector

 

Team 2
Orbiting Planets
Vivid Plasma
Memory Leak
Chiroptera Venenata
Hellfire
Eldritch Flame
Nebula

 

Team 3
Dead Presidents
Blizzardy Storm
Circling Peace Sign
Power Surge
Something Burning This Way Comes
Darkblaze
Ancient Eldritch

 

Team 4
Purple Confetti
Circling Heart
Time Warp
Cloudy Moon
Amaranthine
Demonflame
Electric Hat Protector

 

Team 5
Massed Flies
Cloud 9
Green Energy
Electrostatic
Misty Skull
Voltaic Hat Protector
Nether Trail

 

Team 6
Nuts n Bolts
Disco Beat Down
Flaming Lantern
Morning Glory
It s A Secret To Everybody
Ether Trail

 

Team 7
Bubbling
Kill a Watt
Scorching Flames
Sulphurous
Spellbound
Haunted Phantasm Jr
Ancient Codex

 

Team 8
Aces High
Purple Energy
Eerie Orbiting Fire
Phosphorous
Harvest Moon
Subatomic
Death by Disco

 

Team 9
Smoking
Miami Nights
Sunbeams
Cauldron Bubbles
Stare From Beyond
Poisoned Shadows
It's a puzzle to me

 

Team 10
Green Confetti
Searing Plasma
Death at Dusk
Roboactive
Knifestorm
It's a mystery to everyone
Atomic

 

Team 11
Steaming
Burning Flames
Green Black Hole
Molten Mallard
Arcana
Bonzo The All Gnawing
Abduction

 

Team 12
Orbiting Fire
Haunted Ghosts
Frostbite
Anti Freeze
Ghastly Ghosts Jr
The Ooze
Galactic Codex

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We have had an absolutely amazing week with a rough estimate of over 1500 unusuals updated during the course of the event!  I know you've all been eagerly awaiting the results, so on to the prizes...

 

1st place - $300 Marketplace.tf credit and Event Winner profile badge

 

As I’m sure you may have noticed, teams 3 and 8 have been neck and neck through the entire event, and the final count was no exception. We did 3 separate recounts of these teams points and we could not come up with a clear winner, with 1-2 points between them on every count and many suggestions open to interpretation or mod judgment on whether to deduct points for closures and so forth. Given the absolutely incredible amount of effort put forth by both teams and the margin of error inherent in a human count we simply did not feel comfortable making a call that may not have been fair to one team. As such, we have made the decision to award teams 3 and 8 joint first place! Geel and Jesse have generously agreed to award $300 each to the joint winners!

 

Teams 3 and 8 please contact me on the forums or ping me on discord to let me know how you would like your prize money split within your team.

 

Mod’s choice - $100 Marketplace.tf credit and Mod’s Choice profile badge

 

We had a bit of a discussion on whom to award this to, with numerous teams working well together and impressing us with their level of commitment to the event. However, one team clearly shone through. Team 10 have surprised everyone on the mod team with their exceptional teamwork throughout the entire week. Both the site regulars on the team put in a huge amount of effort to include and teach their newer teammates, with Lemons in particular going above and beyond our expectations. The newer members in turn put in time and energy, were enthusiastic and eager to learn, and continued working together very well even when their more experienced teammates were unavailable. All in all, team 10 were a fantastic example of what we were trying to achieve in this event, and should be incredibly proud of themselves for what they accomplished.

 

Team 10 please contact me on the forums or ping me on discord to let me know how you would like your prize money split within your team.

 

MVP - $50 marketplace.tf credit and MVP profile badge

 

While several participants put in an enormous amount of work both in terms of suggesting and teaching teammates, there is one user who has worked tirelessly and without complaint throughout. Blaze.xTH3RM4Lx got the short end of the stick in many ways, with 2 teammates eliminated for non-participation, 2 who had good intentions and tried their best but had availability and coordination issues, and his premium running out mid-way through the event. Despite all of this, he managed to bring his team home in third place with an impressive 335 points, which is in my opinion an incredible feat.

 

Participation – 1 month free premium, donator credit and Event Participant profile badge

 

Every user who participated in the event will receive a month of free premium and we have also decided to award backpack.tf donator credit to all participants at $0.01 per point for your team.

 

Once the winning teams have let me know how they want their prize money split, I will pass all the information on to Jesse and he will apply your premium and donator credit and contact you about your marketplace gift cards. I will apply your site badges ASAP.

 

Full points totals:

 

  • Team 3/Team 8 - 415 points
  • Team 1 - 335 points
  • Team 7 - 307 points
  • Team 5 - 256 points
  • Team 9 - 238 points
  • Team 10 - 178 points
  • Team 4 - 172 points
  • Team 6 - 159 points
  • Team 12 - 97 points
  • Team 11 - 86 points
  • Team 2 - 71 points

 

I want to say a huge thank you to everybody who actively participated and gave their time; veteran suggesters and new users alike. I also want to thank the moderating team, without whom the event would have failed entirely, and our owners Geel and Jesse for agreeing to provide the prize funds. The effort you have all put in to make this event work has been absolutely extraordinary and I’m so proud of what we have been able to achieve together as a community.

 

A post with the results of the feedback survey and our responses and plans for the future will follow this one.

 

 

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Survey completion

EjerVnk.png

 

We had 43 responses to the survey out of the 55 participants who remained in the event at the end, which is a pretty good level of feedback - thanks all!

 

Event length

EHArmyB.png

As you can see, around half the respondents felt the event was about right, with the remaining number leaning towards it being too long. The last event lasted around 3 days, so perhaps for the next one we can try something in the middle; around 5 days might work better for people, or perhaps it is better just to go with a specific weekend so that people who are working can either decide to commit their time on that weekend and join or just skip the event. The problem with running it through the week is mostly that younger users will have more time available than those who work full time over summer.

 

Next event

 

zeeUsBP.png

Fairly even split in when people would like the next event to take place. I think the best option here is to do a poll on the forums that allows users who were not in this event but may wish to be involved in future events to vote also, so we get an idea of when the most people would like it to take place.

 

Fairness of teams

 

2pkGaEj.png

Most users either felt the teams were fair or felt they were reasonably fair with some caveats. Here is the full list of comments included:

 

  • Yes in a way but certain teams had more people than others.
  • Yes But Most of the effects we got were hard as sales are every less Only Circling Heart was a good effect for us~ SPLIT effects Fairly next time .-.
  • team 11 was overpowered but lazy, meh i think it's good enough for 50 people who participated
  • They were balanced pretty fair i guess. We had less people to begin with than a lot of other teams, plus we got 2 non-participants (3 person team basically) but we did have someone (blaze) on our team who is super good/fast at suggesting, so it made up for that. (Feel bad he did most of the work tho)
  • If the teams were even somewhat like mine then the teams were fair but looking at the leaderboards, it seemed as if some teams just had people who didn't participate. (idk though)
  • Kinda
  • Not really, since my team had some technical issues 
  • Was told personally that I was put on the least competent team and that one of my original teammates "didn't count" as a competent suggester 
  • I believe that we should be allowed to create and choose our own teams. However, similar to the first event, mods could also create other teams. It isn't just a matter of having newer suggestors that are inexperienced, I even encourage that. Some people just don't work well together. I do feel like my team was fine though, Konie and HarryG did a wonderful job! (Apologies for sloppy responses, typing this on my phone so I can't proofread.)
  • Personally, I felt like teams were set up quite fairly. But seeing the final results and the huge difference between top team and the bottom team points, I suppose some teams had more than one experienced members and some didn't. 

We definitely ended up with some issues with variety of participation. Some users were extremely involved and active regardless of experience level, and some were not. Unfortunately, it's just difficult to gauge this prior to the event. I had (wrongfully) assumed that anyone choosing to sign up for a week long event had at least a reasonable amount of time to devote to it each day. As it turns out, some people had 12 hours per day or more, some people had only a couple, and some people didn't show up at all (those people were eliminated.) For the next event, I think it's going to help enormously to not only ask people who enter how much time they have available but to also make sure they stipulate when they have that time available so I can try to match them up with people who will be around at similar times and spread the amount of time people are able to devote to suggesting more evenly between teams.

 

What did you enjoy about the event?

 

A summarised list of what people mentioned:

  • Teamwork
  • Meeting new people
  • Learning to suggest
  • Teaching new users
  • Updating prices
  • Competing
  • Perks for participation
  • Prizes

What did you not enjoy about the event?

 

Issues that came up that people did not enjoy include:

  • Time zone/coordination issues, especially for non-premium users
  • Non-participation from some users
  • Length of event
  • Class days
  • Effect distribution between teams
  • Keeping the effects the same for each team everyday
  • Not enough incentive/time to teach new users properly
  • Too much involvement/micromanaging from mods
  • Suggestion cap

As mentioned above, I think we definitely need to put more thought into the way we screen people when signing up to ensure that we can put together teams who can work together better and get a more even spread of availability from team members.

 

We'll probably also make the next event shorter in length.

 

The way we setup the event in terms of themed days, class choices and effects was designed to encourage the focus on outdated hats to gain more points, but I understand and take on board that it could 1) get a bit static suggesting the same effects everyday and knowing the whole plan for the week rather than having a surprise/announcement each new day; and 2) end up being a little unfair to some teams who end up with easier or more difficult effects to suggest on with no changes. We went with this plan because it would have been extremely difficult for moderators to keep up with which were valid event suggestions or not if we switched up effects everyday, but in hindsight I think we need a better system for the next event to keep it fairer and keep it fresh and interesting day-to-day. Future events will probably have more focused themes for each day which would be announced on the day rather than for the period of the event. We'd also switch up effects so that people who feel the ones they got are unfair get a change for the next day.

 

The problem of not having enough time to really invest in teaching new users is a fair criticism too. The team who did this the best, team 10, came somewhere in the middle, which demonstrates that in the system we designed the best teamwork does not pay off. For experienced unusual suggesters, it was often quicker to make suggestions than to teach new users how to do so. We have a few ideas for how to help alleviate this problem in future events, such as deducting more points for closed suggestions (encouraging quality over quantity), splitting prize money more evenly across the board based on teams points totals (rather than having huge prizes for winners only), making mod's choice team the highest prize total, and potentially having some experienced suggesters involved in the event but not on teams. The last idea is one that I think could make a big difference. If we had some black belt unusual suggesters who had no team affiliation or incentive to win, and no suggestions to handle like the mods do, they could have access to all team channels and simply spend their time in the event teaching and helping new users. 

 

The suggestion cap is a tricky one, because while it would be possible to increase or suspend it, I'm not sure that it's a great idea to encourage quantity over quality for reasons outlined above.

 

Summary

 

Overall, I think the event was a great success. We got a lot of unusuals updated and most participants worked hard and contributed to their teams. The criticisms that have come up in the feedback have been fair, and I have outlined some ideas above that we will consider when planning the next event to try to alleviate these problems. If y'all have any suggestions for other things we could consider to make future events more enjoyable for you, feel free to post more feedback or discuss below.

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